The 1 Million March 4 Children is a far-right protest that took place in cities across Canada on September 20 for the first time, and is slated to occur again this weekend. It is organized under the idea of fighting for “parental rights,” which is a euphemism for removing sexual orientation and gender identity education from schools and limiting minors’ access to gender-affirming care, 2SLGBTQ+ spaces, and privacy of name and pronouns in school. But this march is not only an attack against students’ rights in primary school — it is part of a much broader far-right offensive against unions and public services, with fascist characteristics.
The first iteration of the march was met with direct opposition from counter-protests, which also took place across the country. In Edmonton, the march began at the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) building. There were some very strong responses from both sides, though the counter-protesters in Edmonton were ultimately outnumbered by the time the protest had officially begun. Counter-protesters gathered in front of the ATA building, as protesters inched their way onto the highway separating the protesters from counter-protesters. When the actual march began, students from Ross Sheppard High School stepped out and followed counter-protesters to yell slurs, insults, and throw food and drinks, all while being egged on and given supplies by their parents.
Unions as the base of opposition
The protest drew an immediate curiosity from me. It is, on paper, meant to be a fight for “parental rights” — but if so, why are they protesting at the ATA headquarters instead of at the Alberta Legislature or Edmonton City Hall? It was certainly not an accident, and noting the presence of unions around the protest makes this clear. Around me in the counter-protest section, people waved flags for United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), CUPE, PSAC, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), UFCW, and of course, ATA. In fact, members of ATA even hung a very large progress pride flag from the parking lot. ATA executives, among a slew of other union bodies, made their stance in support of 2SLGBTQ+ rights very firmly clear.
Meanwhile, the only flags on the protesters’ side were Alberta and Canada flags, not a single union flag. Any research into the people taking part in these protests quickly finds that many of them are scabs, ignoring union mandates and insulting and berating their unions for taking part in the “indoctrination and sexualization of children.”
That begs the question still: why protest at a union building for legal rights? The answer is perhaps clearest when understanding the role of unions in Canada in developing 2SLGBTQ+ rights in the first place. Back in the 1970s, for example, CUPE fought for anti-discrimination clauses in contracts of Toronto municipal and library workers to protect workers from harassment and discrimination based on sexuality. In the 50 years since then, unions have been playing a role in developing the social and legal basis of protection and equality for 2SLGBTQ+ rights, a fight which is ongoing through the unions to this day.
Indeed, unions are best positioned to be the base of opposition to these far-right attacks, which ultimately seek to undermine the democratic institutions of the working class, cut and privatize public services, and further empower big capital.
The role of fascists groups in the march
The organizers of this march were not stupid; they chose a union building as the site for protest for a particular reason. It is workers’ democracy which upholds the rights and freedoms of 2SLGBTQ+ people in schools and in workplaces. By attacking and weakening the workers’ democratic organizations, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie grows in strength. That is to say, exploitation of workers becomes vastly easier, and by extension, violence toward trans people becomes that much easier to enact and that much more socially acceptable.
Indeed, this protest was about more than just removing 2SLGBTQ+ rights from youth: it is part of an overall fascist strategy to undermine and overthrow the democratic institutions of the working class. This is done by sowing doubts toward the unions not only among others, but also among some of its own members (hence people on the protester side denouncing their unions). This isn’t even just subtext: looking at the organizations that funded and supported this march in the first place, the fascism becomes completely explicit, much like with the organizers of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy.” Indeed, the professed aims of groups like the Canadian Democratic Defense Association and The Myth Is Canada are to mass-arrest politicians, abolish the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ban political parties, abolish the electoral process, and criminalize “cultural Marxism” and “political correctness.” Even this protest’s stated goal, “parental rights,” in practice is looking to give parents the right to abuse their children. As well, organizers opportunistically mobilized socially conservative members of the Muslim community for this protest, despite widespread Islamophobic views among them and continued alliances with anti-immigration groups.
This march, whose political agenda corresponds to that of far-right political parties, had also attained support from an unknown percentage of police officers and military of Canada. Among the supporters of this march is Project Indigo, organized by Raven News to fight the “indoctrination” of children into 2SLGBTQ+ “ideology,” which is partnered with Police On Guard For Thee. This is an organization of active and retired police officers who have come together to oppose COVID-19 public health measures. The overall size and level of support is not currently known, but it is alarming nonetheless, particularly as these groups participate in funding and organizing protests that attack unions.
Fascism in Canada targets healthcare and education
Altogether, this march has highlighted the growing threat of fascism as a follow-up to the “Freedom Convoy.” This appears to be part of a political agenda to attempt to target liberal and social-democratic politicians in Canada for removal and implement fascist policies to tear apart workers’ democracy through sheer violence. Ultimately, fascism arises to amplify the exploitation of Canadians to placate the falling rate of profit through industrialized human sacrifice; capitalists hope to grease the rusting, groaning wheels of capitalism with blood.
The primary organizational method of these fascists is through targeting anxieties and doubts in Canada’s healthcare system. This was first realized through the anti-vaccine conspiracy theories that abounded throughout Canada, allowing fascists to fund and organize people around these conspiracy theories to first undermine and attack the unions of healthcare workers and truckers alike. It was then a simple step to integrate transphobic conspiracy theories into this organization, playing on far-right delusions of “children being forced into HRT” and “sexual indoctrination” to spread from healthcare anxieties to anxieties in Canada’s educational system.
Thus, the next attack was directed primarily toward the institutions of education workers, while still secondarily targeting healthcare workers’ unions through demanding policies to remove access to a particular healthcare practice to the current target, trans students, all working part and parcel with the overall right-wing agenda of privatizing healthcare in Canada.
Although across Canada many counter-protests found themselves outnumbering protests, this was not true in Edmonton, and this is most likely because Alberta has some of the lowest overall unionized employment rates across Canada. In this manner, Alberta is particularly vulnerable to the rise of fascism in Canada.
The role of communists in Alberta must turn their attention toward strengthening current unions and unionizing more workplaces to ensure greater strength against the coming onslaught of fascist attacks, which will only rise in number and proportions as the rate of profit continues to fall. Part of that strategy should also focus on reinforcing the foundations that fascists are attacking, before they can breach these defenses: push forward for improvement of healthcare, not its downfall! Make better educational facilities, don’t destroy them! That means free tuition and pharmacare for all!
Fascism demands we destroy everything we built for the profit of the few, while socialism demands we build on and improve these things for the benefit of all! Let us fight to defend the rights of all workers, expand public services, and struggle for socialism!